163 
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS TO THE BOTANICAL 
SECTION OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION! 
y W. T. Tutsevton-Dyrr, M. A., F. R. 8. 
Director of the Royal Gardens, Kew. 
The establishment of a new Section of the British Associa- 
tion, devoted to Botany, cannot but be regarded by the 
botanists of this country as an event of the greatest import- 
ance. 
I confess I found it a great temptation to review, however 
imperfectly, the history and fortunes of our subject while it 
belonged to Section D. [Biology]. But to have done so 
would have been practically to have written the history of 
botany in this country since the first third of the century. 
Yet I cannot pass over some few striking events. 
I think that the earliest of these must undoubtedly be 
regarded as the most epoch-making. I mean the formal 
publication by the Linnean Society, in 1833, of the first 
description of ‘the nucleus of the cell,’ by Robert Brown.? 
It seems difficult to realize that this may be within the 
recollection of some who are now living amongst us. It is, 
however, of peculiar interest to me that the first person who 
actually distinguished this all-important body and indicated 
it in a figure, was Francis Bauer, thirty years earlier, in 1802. 
This remarkable man, whose skill in applying the resources 
of art to the illustration of plant anatomy has never, i 
suppose, been surpassed, was resident draughtsman for 
fifty years to the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. And it was 
at Kew, and in a tropical orchid, Phaius grandifolius, no 
doubt grown there, that the discovery was made. 
It was, I confess, with no little admiration that, on refresh- 
ing my memory by a reference to Robert Brown’s paper, I 
Eryruna, Vol. III., No. 12 [11 December, 1895]. 
2 Mise. Bot. Works, i. 512. 
